Canadian PM abandons promised change to electoral system

The past week has been a challenging one for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He has had to deal with a new U.S. administration led by President Donald Trump, who twice surprised Canada by approving the controversial, cross-border Keystone XL pipeline and implementing a sweeping travel-and-immigration ban.

Trudeau, who supports the pipeline project, has had to explain how his support for pipeline projects fits within his Liberal government's climate-change strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He has also been forced into the delicate diplomatic position of declaring his country's doors are open to all, without directly attacking Trump's closed-door policy and putting at risk Canada's vital relationship with the United States.

But Trudeau's current challenges are coming from within rather than from the neighboring country when his government announced on Wednesday that it had abandoned a commitment to reform Canada's electoral system.

Opposition politicians accused the Prime Minister of betraying the voters by breaking a promise his Liberal Party made during the 2015 national election campaign to "make every vote count" and end the first-past-the-post voting system, in which candidates who win a majority of votes in a riding are automatically elected to the House of Commons.

There were hints Trudeau might reverse course, particularly when his government launched an online survey late last year to gauge public opinion on electoral change. The survey shows that most Canadians reportedly were satisfied with the status quo.

However, that was done after a special all-party House of Commons committee, which the Liberals promised to convene during the 2015 election campaign, held its own cross-country public consultation and found that most Canadians wanted a change.

Based on that feedback, the committee recommended that the government develop a new proportional electoral system, where House seats are allocated to political parties based on the percentage of the popular vote each receives in an election.

In 2015, the Liberals vowed that if they were to form government, they would introduce legislation to enact electoral reform within 18 months and before the next federal election in 2019. That plan is now off the table.

On Wednesday, the Prime Minister's Office released a mandate letter sent to Democratic Institutions Minister Karina Gould, a portfolio that previously held responsibility for electoral reform. Yet in the letter, Trudeau informed Gould that, "changing the electoral system will not be in your mandate."

"It has become evident," she said, referring to the results of the government's web-based survey, "that the broad support needed among Canadians for a change of this magnitude does not exist."

Opposition members of the House committee, who arrived at a contrary conclusion, were enraged.

Nathan Cullen, an MP who represents the left-of-center New Democratic Party, called Trudeau "a liar" and "the most cynical variety of politician, saying whatever it takes to get elected."

Cullen said "Trudeau will certainly pay a political price with those he lied to." But the next election is more than two years away, and other issues could emerge by then to eclipse the Prime Minister's abandoned pledge to change the way Canadians vote.

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May said she felt "more deeply shocked and betrayed by my government today than on any day of my adult life."

Trudeau has already changed the channel by giving Gould a new "top" responsibility to safeguard Canada against the type of situation that dogged last year's U.S. presidential campaign involving reports of Russian cyber-attacks against Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Canada's Democratic Institutions Minister will shift her focus from electoral reform to collaborating with the defense and public safety ministers to protect the country's electoral process against cyber-threats.

"Obviously what has happened in the U.S. is [something] we are looking at," said National Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan. Enditem